03/30/2021
hey guys nice to see you again so it's liza here i'm glad to welcome
you to the weekly uh live session and uh if you hear me if you see me
please let me know that everything works smooth because like just three minutes before
the live session uh my home wi-fi connection cut off and i just had to
switch on uh the mobile connection the mobile internet
and i'm so scared that something uh might work um
not that well so please if you see and hear me clearly let me know that
it works okay um i hope that uh this internet connection
problem won't cause any troubles hello guys
thanks for coming thanks for joining please let me know that you hear and see me clearly okay
uh it looks like my picture hangs
for some moments hey guys hello okay rosie thank you so much for
letting me know and hello guys i can see that there are some people
from pakistan what else um so i can i can also see
some um regulars thanks for coming here and uh in order
to um start earlier uh let's just move on to the first part of
the presentation and um i would like to um remember i would like to remind you that
today's topic is devoted to english grammar for non-native english speakers for
non-native esl teachers and um well this topic is really
controversial and i hope that uh you won't see um it
as um let me say as an educative uh session because
uh it's rather about motivation and understanding how to uh organize your
work and study uh so i would like just to share my personal
experience and also to hear from you because english grammar is something really
important but at the same time people pay too much attention to it especially
when they are not native speakers and well and their english uh isn't that fluent probably
uh so this is the topic uh to this guide to discuss from various
angles and that's what we are going to do today uh so
i won't pay attention to the comments right now but i can see that there are so many uh
so many hellos and greetings um i'm so impressed guys thank you so much
for coming today um i hope i'll be helpful and informative
so let me just move on to the second slide and um show you some stats
so before this session i decided to ask uh the audience on our face uh not
facebook on our uh youtube channel what they find uh difficult in english learning
uh either grammar or vocabulary and as you can see from this very slide like 68 percent of people
believe that grammar is more difficult than vocabulary and i think that you are not the
exception uh in this uh poll in this question um
and well to me right now grammar isn't as difficult as vocabulary
uh i would say that they are um on the same level but it's my personal
opinion and um i will try to um
explain you why i think so so when we think of english
um when we think of english grammar um of being something really challenging we
probably um believe that there are too many rules there are too many contradicting rules
like um i learned this but then the book says that forget about it
there are some um some problems which don't connect uh with this
particular rule and this rule won't work uh this way uh however
uh probably the most um the the most biggest the the biggest
um hurdle in in this whole situation would be that
um english grammar uh varies a lot from uh your native tongues grammar
for example um when we uh take russian uh as an example
um there are no articles in russian in the russian language uh
that is why all russian speakers um struggle uh to use articles in a correct
way and i believe that the same might happen in your native languages and in your
learning paths in english but well let's just vote
uh do you think that the above mentioned problems are really um those issues
to consider when we learn english grammar so please send me either plus or minus
in the chat box so do you agree that all of those things related to rules and
maybe differences uh between english and the native tongues are really important what do you guys
think uh let's have this uh bit of communication so that um i understand that there are
some people uh behind the screen and uh we are on the same page yeah so
i can see uh that some of you answer that actually rules
and native tongues are really important however from my point of view
it doesn't matter that much uh if we compare uh those problems uh to some uh
bigger issues as the ones i listed on this slide
so uh when we learn english um at the earlier stages of our lives
like when we are beginners or maybe intermediate level students
uh we really find uh rules and uh differences between two different two
languages are uh crucial however when we reach like uh the advanced level
or maybe um upper intermediate it turns out that there are some other
factors that influence our grammar ability a lot and you can see them here
so from my point of view it's um really problematic for the non-native
english speakers that we don't have that much practice as
native speakers and it's probably obvious however um
we believe that our best choice would be drill theoretical points
drill course books but it's a great mistake from my uh from my point of view
again um and i will prove it i will try to do that uh the second
uh problem actually stems from the first one so they are like um
complementary uh we don't have the same environment um in
our countries like uh we are not exposed to english on the regular basis um
it's it's hardly possible to speak english like once or twice a week
uh when we stay for example in russia or in china or anywhere else in the world
but in native english-speaking countries and even those people uh
even those countries where tourism uh is developed well uh
spend not much time practicing english although there are many english speakers
visiting um and the last point which i consider really important
is that uh we don't know how to learn effectively and we choose uh the most
inefficient strategies what i mean by saying the most
inefficient strategies is that we tend to drill a lot uh for example when we go on the
internet and search like uh advanced english vocabulary
we find a lot of um lists of words those words are really good
however they are not helpful at all because they are provided as
just word lists we don't know how to use them in our everyday life we don't know how
they are used in a context and that's the biggest mistake so uh
i believe that uh to reach the advanced level um both in
english grammar and in english vocabulary and english in general it's really
um the the it's really important that we uh switch between this old-fashioned way
of learning things to uh the more progressive one to the more proactive one and
here is what uh is usually um common to advanced level
students like we are like we teachers are so we sometimes
stick to the habitual ineffective learning strategies so we know that drilling isn't effective
we've read it in the methodological courses right for example uh two years ago not not two
years ago back in 2017 um when i took this tefl course with itttt
uh there was a module devoted to um the most progressive methods of teaching
um and i learned that drilling uh wasn't effective at that time i still
didn't stop using using it myself as a learner i stopped making my students
real but i didn't stop doing it myself because it's my bad habit so
um i accept it but i can't help myself stop doing it
and do you have anything like that in your bad habits list let me know
another problem which is also quite common to the advanced level students is that
we stop taking um english classes uh so for example being
an english learner um at the intermediate level we want to
um level up and we want to reach the advanced level so in order to that
to do that we take english classes uh we um work on
our vocabulary and grammar on a regular basis uh we want to
pass exams and and stuff like that but uh when we reach this desirable
advanced level we just stop doing it because we feel like
okay that's enough i'm okay with the advanced level so i have already learned english by
heart that's okay i'm done and here is the struggle
it's it's really it's a real con to stop doing that it's
a real con to stop uh learning english to stop continuing
this english learning process um another problem would be that
many english learners and english teachers don't try to communicate
but communication is something which english is made for like uh if we use it
as a global language so uh to practice uh grammar to practice vocabulary we have to
communicate right what do you think um and the and the last point to mention but not
the least uh we ignore um other opportunities to
learn uh what i mean by some other opportunities
it's for example taking part in competitions in english or
maybe joining a community or a study group in english
so um taking as many uh possibilities to practice
english and edust english grammar in the daily life it is really important
to uh take part in some other activities but in english not in your native
language right and um as for mastering grammar
on your own how how could you do that first thing first stop drilling
stop using word lists i know that i've mentioned i do it
myself so it's my guilty pleasure i'm ashamed of it but
i i still try to stop drilling and
at the same time i would recommend you to um try to connect english to something
really meaningful for example i noticed that my um
that uh the biggest tape the biggest step i took uh was that i started
uh watching english movies uh i started watching movies in english
without any subtitles and that way uh helped me to understand english
grammar in the most natural way and for example right now uh i take
part um i take english classes to prepare for the cpe exam
and we focus on the most challenging grammar points these days
which is inversion uh conditional sentences and stuff like that you know
uh the most challenging points for maybe all english learners and native
speakers as well and i found myself useful
reading in english so let me show you my book so it's my uh
extensive reading book right now uh it's called
extremely loud and incredibly close um i know that this book is like a bestseller
and when i bought it i just wanted to uh read its content but when i started
i realized that it is full of conditional sentences it is full of inversion
and other grammar stuff which um before made me feel so crazy
so uh this way um is probably the most beneficial way to
understand english grammar so always try to connect it to something meaningful to you
don't learn english grammar solely from the other skills um
if we go back to the very first slide with the stats uh you would see that
there are just two options like grammar or vocabulary
what is more difficult and obviously there are some other areas
in english which might make you feel depressed sometimes for
example speaking or maybe listening i know that some people
are um like more visual people uh more visual individuals
and they accept the materials when they are visualized better so they
they tend to have problems with listening and again when you listen to something
you also hear some grammar when you read something you face grammar rules as
well uh so my recommendation is that you start implementing um
your grammar uh learning into your daily life and you try to
you try to find grammar all over yourself like in english books uh in tv shows
and wherever you can so uh this is why i believe english grammar
isn't that difficult uh it's just our attitude and approach to learning it
okay what do you guys think do you agree or disagree and
the next point uh would be well should there be any formal learning
when we talk about grammar uh i believe formal learning is still
useful sometimes we just don't want to invest that much money into formal
classes for example but this way you can
get some more experience from for example native english speaking uh
teachers um so as for myself as mentioned before i take classes
uh in in cp group uh and our english teacher uh
is from the united kingdom uh he's trained um in this exam stuff
so when we work on the grammatical points or on vocabulary
um or any other aspects of english he gives the most proficient uh feedback
uh on how to use this or that in the daily life or um what else
maybe how to write appropriate letters or essays and stuff like that so
i still think that uh taking classes is something really beneficial for you
as a learner and at the same time formal learning
might take place in your own study process but i would recommend to
um combine uh like some formal ways uh to learn english and grammar as well
and some informal practices so for example you take a grammar book
and then um well may do some exercises and after that go to practice watching
your favorite tv show and try to focus on those grammar points which you
have just uh faced okay so this strategy is more pro proactive and is more
helpful from my personal experience as well um okay and
um i also know that some people uh struggle to practice grammar grammar
uh in their daily life especially in the speech because they don't have uh this
environment they don't have this community of open-minded people
that is why i would like to invite you to uh the group i have created uh
for this very purpose i would really like to uh build a community of um
open-minded people who are interested in english and who want to use it
in their daily life so if you scan this qr code
you can get directly to that group uh although it doesn't have
um any content yet uh i have just created the first um the first banner uh
but i promise to uh create several posts this week uh
and share some tips on how to uh work on your grammar as well uh so that there there would be
um a real approach like not just motivation like right now okay
so i hope that it's something that might interest you and i i would like to
welcome you all in this group let's just keep in touch
why not we can make a great community there okay and what else
um all right so let's go to the next slide
i i wanna send you a link to this group actually so that you could
uh find it from the desktop as well so i will be really pleased if you
get into the group um and maybe send me some of your feedbacks for example on
this session or um just i don't know just your greetings
um i'm really really eager to communicate with uh people from all over the world it's
something which fascinates me a lot and actually last week
there were um last week i i did the session um about
mira and lesson design and some of you um well some of you added me
as a friend on facebook and i had such a nice conversation thank you
thank you sidra so sigra has just joined the group so there are two of us that's
so nice to hear okay and let me see what's next
um i would like you to invite to brainstorm um i know that your guys
are pretty experienced in english teaching and in english learning and do you have
any idea on how to improve your english grammar so if yes and if you are not um
afraid to share your just gold experience please do that
right now and i will share um your responses on the screen so so that everyone could
see it so what are your strategies to english to master english grammar
so as i have already mentioned uh the way i work on my grammar
is more active than passive um of course i take english classes and i
study by the book but i still try to find grammar
uh wherever i can when i watch uh tv shows for example the last one um i i was
watching i was binge watching is how to get away with murder
helped me to practice like conditional sentences because there were so many of them um
and as for this book as for the reading part i also find
a lot of difficult um difficult examples in terms of tenses uh
what else um in inverted sentences um conditional
sentences as well and many useful vocabulary like some advanced words
and phrases okay so let's see
yeah that's right so it's important to practice uh grammar in your speech as well so
if you for example learned some grammatical points
but you don't know how to practice them in your speech it's a great idea to
write down a sentence and practice it as a part of your writing routine
and then probably just read it out loud and record yourself so that you could
see um so that you could hear that you use this grammar point correctly
so that's also a great idea uh and i believe it's really useful
sometimes i actually do it myself and by the way
for some reason i forgot to add it to the slide but my favorite way to learn grammar is
to teach it again speaking of the tefl course
um as a part of the tefl course especially of the 120 hours course
there there is um a great amount of grammar in it and it explains how to teach
um challenging grammatical points uh well uh so
it's also a great way for teachers to understand grammar better um
what do you think and by the way um tomorrow no not tomorrow next week next
week on wednesday i start teaching um a group of advanced students they are
actually going to be like mixed ability students but some of them are pretty advanced
and the approach i would like to implement is more
active so i will try to stick i will try to focus on speaking and
maybe some other productive skills like writing uh instead of um doing some exercises
and stuff like that so it's gonna be like a conversation group and i'm so excited
that um i i could follow that i could find such a job such a job opportunity
because um i think uh this way will help me to work on myself
as well yeah so teaching grammar
is a great way to practice it as well as an english teacher and as an english learner so if you want
to nail it just start teaching it okay and i can see that there are not
that many strategies but maybe you guys are some hesitant
uh so don't be afraid to share your ideas so maybe um you use some really interesting
strategies on how to learn grammar and they might help some other people
don't be afraid to share your ideas on the comments section and right now um
let's go uh to this section of the presentation which is the q and a
section uh here we discussed um various aspects like uh tefl teaching
uh english learning and whatever uh might interest you so if you have any
specific questions um just feel free to ask me
via the chat box and also what else let me think yeah
here you can see this qr code uh it is the qr code that gives you
uh this really nice 30 discount of any itt courses so
if you are willing to start your teaching career so this is the first step to take
you can just simply scan it and then choose the most interesting course as
you um think okay okay so i can see that there are some
other ideas on how to learn grammar and i i'm try um i would like to
share it with you so the best teach requires two things target center
teaching and taking notes of what uh of what extent the student is capable of
yeah four four skills are really important that's right um
yeah i agree um but this is more like about teaching right rather
than learning what about some points on how to learn english grammar well
what do you think well and again anyway um we are here to discuss
all stuff around tefl and efl learning so feel free to ask me
whatever questions you have and i will try my best to help you out with it okay
uh so maybe you're interested in a specific tefl course but you are doubtful
so it's the time to ask me and by the way i would like to make an
announcement uh about the section not sections about the session next week uh
so i am going to invite my friend who is now working in china
to have an interview and um yeah i think this topic will be
extremely interesting to many people because i know that there are still
um many teachers willing to teach um abroad and china is probably one of
the most interesting destinations so um stay tuned uh don't forget to
subscribe to our channel on youtube for example or uh the group on on facebook
um and keep in touch um because we will make this announcement
maybe at the end of the week so i will create a new event um
related to this interview because um i think last week
uh one of the um one of the viewers uh from from this uh regular sessions
asked me to um talk a little bit more about uh jobs abroad
and he wanted to know more about china but as long as i i stopped teaching in
china quite a lot uh quite a lot years ago like
how many years let me think so i stopped teaching in china two years ago and
um i i hardly know anything about it right now so
i i still have wechat on my cell phone but that's all i don't communicate with
any recruiters i don't uh follow any uh groups for english teachers
in china so i don't know anything but i i really want to be valuable and
um i i want to share the most up-to-date content with you that's why i decided to invite my friend
who is now there and by the way uh he had been teaching um
in china uh the whole quarantine period and uh
he is still teaching there actually so uh that's a really interesting topic
to discuss quarantine in china like how how was that and what did they do
how much money they got like you know everybody was sitting at home at that
time and i i just i'm just really curious about the
the point of money okay so if you guys don't have any questions
on tefl teaching and stuff like that um i think that
that is all of today's for for the today's session uh just let me
remind you that itttttt is presented uh all over your favorite social
networks so um if you want to keep updated
please subscribe to our facebook group and maybe instagram if you like it and
yeah keep in touch uh of course if you get any questions related to tefl
or uh teaching abroad for example you can ask us um on the messenger
or you can email us uh and we will try to be as helpful as it
is possible okay so this is the end of today's session
and uh i think that grammar stuff was pretty uh um fast uh
well i would like to remind you once again that i created this
um facebook community for uh english learners and english teachers
who really want to uh feel um as a part of a community and as a part
of a global community so feel free to join me and i will try my best to um
share my personal experience and uh some useful content um thank you so
much that you spend these 40 minutes with me i know that we all are busy people and
sometimes it's like um useful useful to watch some webinars
but sometimes it's not um i still hope that my my life session was interesting
and it helped you somehow uh but if you want to keep in touch with
me personally so join this group or um add me as a friend on facebook i really
like to communicate and i will be just amazed if there are any people interested in uh making
friends with me so uh stay tuned uh on the next sessions topic
it's going to be really interesting and i hope it will work out because my friend is pretty busy in
china obviously and i i hope that we will find the most
we will find the best uh time to make that conversation okay
uh so thanks a lot guys and i'll see you next week bye bye
